Expired Konica Minolta VX 100 Super: A Film That Will Not Let You Down!

Have you ever felt certain, after finishing a roll of film, that you were going to get a completely wasted roll back from the lab? I did. However, against all odds, the trusty expired Konica Minolta VX 100 Super film did not let me down! The only bad thing? I don’t have more of it.

A few months ago I found an unused unopened Konica Minolta VX 100 Super film roll that my uncle had given me 5 years ago when he bought me a Lomography Fisheye camera. I noticed it had been expired since December 2008 and decided to load it onto my Pentax ME Super as a test roll.

The Pentax ME Super had belonged to my dad and it had been in storage and unused for the last 20 years and while shooting the test roll I noticed extremely weird light meter readings. Just to give an example, it was a very sunny day and with the 100 ISO film it was giving me shutter speeds of 2000 and 1000 at 16 and 22 apertures! I’m still new to photography but I remembered the Sunny 16 Rule and how acording to it, it should be about 125 speed with 100 ISO film and 16 apperture so I realized there was surely something wrong with the camera.

After finishing the roll of film I spent the next few days feeling sad as I was sure I’d get back a completely wasted roll back from the lab. I’m always anxious and afraid I will get wasted rolls but this time I was certain it was going to happen and when they handed me the negatives I didn’t even want to look at them. However, to me surpise the expired Konica Minolta VX 100 Super film handled the bad tempered light meter of my camera very well and only about 6 shots on the whole film were wasted. It was such a relief!

Moreover, not only did the photos turn out but I got lovely colors and grain in all its expired glory!

To make things even better, those shots I knew the camera had underexposed and was certain would come out all black ended up being some of my favorite from the roll. The fact that they were underexposed coupled with the wonderful expired qualities of the film only gave them more personality and prettier grain:

The whole afternoon of shooting this roll had been very frustrating, I kept worrrying about the innacurate light meter readings and how the roll was being wasted. I couldn’t relax and kept pushing the shutter button halfway down, even when I didn’t want to shoot anything, just to check how the light meter was doing. One of the times I did that I accidently pushed the shutter button all the way down and it took a photo. I was so upset that I had wasted a photo just because I was checking the light meter! I didn’t even know where the camera had been pointing at because I was only looking at the light meter readings and I was beyond surprised when I saw that the so called wasted shot had come out as a perfectly framed photo:

I guess you can say the afternoon of shooting was one happy accident after another!

One of my favorite things on this roll was that some photos came out with slightly burnt borders, making the photos look old and vintage. I’m not sure if that is due to the camera being old or due to the film being expired but I love it:

I think my light meter problems were due to the battery so I’m going to try the camera again with fresh batteries. Too bad I only had this roll and can’t try it again with this film…All I can say is, if you ever come across expired Konica Minolta VX 100 Super film don’t hesitate to buy it, it won’t let you down!

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I know what you mean about the stress of thinking you're ruining a unique roll. I took a roll of 1966 Kodak Veripan on a trip, and it jammed my camera three times as I tried to use it. I don't have a changing bag (yet!) so each time I had to go to a shady place, put the camera inside my regular bag, and try to open it and unjam it by touch. I'm dreading getting the film back, I wanted to treat it like a cherished antique which is why I saved it for that trip. Now I think it will probably be totally wiped, but your article has given me hope!

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